A's News Clips, Sunday, March 25, 2012 by Joe Stiglich, Oakland
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A’s News Clips, Sunday, March 25, 2012 With opening day nearing, Oakland Athletics' Yoenis Cespedes starting to feel more comfortable By Joe Stiglich, Oakland Tribune Yoenis Cespedes has yet to play a regular-season game for the A's, but he knows how to put on a show in batting practice. The Cuban center fielder sent numerous balls sailing deep over the fence during the A's first workout at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday, including two that landed several rows behind the center field wall. His display drew noticeable reaction from the crowd of onlookers. A's manager Bob Melvin, who was pitching, said he looks forward to seeing Cespedes in a game that counts. "Each and every day he gets more confident and more comfortable," Melvin said. "I think it has a lot to do with not only how he feels on the field, but off of it." The curiosity surrounding Cespedes has taken many forms since he signed with the A's in spring training. Can he live up to the hype that followed him from Cuba? What outfield position will he settle at? And how will he adjust to life in the United States? The answers to some of those questions start coming Wednesday when the A's open their regular season against the Seattle Mariners at the Tokyo Dome, and Cespedes plays in his first official major league game. If A's fans eagerly await the moment, rest assured that Cespedes does too. "I'm happy that I'm one step away from my dream coming true," he said Saturday through interpreter Ariel Prieto. The biggest question, ultimately, is what impact he has on an A's lineup that scored the third-fewest runs in the American League last season and hit the third-fewest home runs. After defecting from Cuba last summer and establishing residence in the Dominican Republic, Cespedes signed a four- year $36 million deal with the A's on March 3. His adjustment has not only been baseball-related, but culture-related as he transitions to a new country while knowing very limited English. But general manager Billy Beane said he's noticed Cespedes has improved his grasp of the language. Cespedes is also noticeably more comfortable addressing reporters than he was upon his arrival, even sprinkling in the occasional English phrase. "Yoenis is picking it up quickly," Beane said. "I was talking to him on the field, amazed at how far he's come in just a couple weeks." Second baseman Jemile Weeks said Cespedes' production "for us is a big deal. We want him to go out there and have success. We want him to go out and get comfortable." Cespedes' big-league debut will come in a familiar place. He played in the 2010 World University Baseball Championship in Japan, where he went 11 for 22 with four home runs in six games. Th e A's s till h aven't made a decision on their starting corner infielders. Josh Donaldson received the majority of playing time at third base during spring training, as the A's viewed him as the best in-house solution after Scott Sizemore was injured. But Eric Sogard hit .341 during the Cactus League to thrust himself into consideration for the job. Donaldson hit just .231 during the spring, but the bigger issue for the former catcher is whether he can make the transition defensively. "I feel really good over there," Donaldson said. "I feel like I've had quality at-bats 95 percent of the time. I'm looking forward to competing and getting that job." The first base battle comes down to Brandon Allen or Kila Ka'aihue, although Melvin has insisted Daric Barton will still be under consideration when the A's return from Japan. Both Allen and Ka'aihue hit left-handed and are out of minor league options, so the A's couldn't keep both on the roster. Allen hit .303 during Cactus League play with two homers and a team-high 13 RBI. Ka'aihue hit .242 with three homers and six RBI, but he looked better at the plate as the spring wore on and Melvin counted him as one of the camp surprises. A group of A's players went karaoke singing Saturday night, including Allen and outfielders Josh Reddick and Collin Cowgill. Word throughout the clubhouse is that Allen, typically one of the team's quieter players, is the A's best singer. "He's got some pipes," catcher Kurt Suzuki said. Inside the Oakland A’s: Pennington will hit second, Cespedes fifth in A’s likely opening day lineup; Allen gets nod at first base By Joe Stiglich, Oakland Tribune, 3/25/2012, 4:05am A’s manager Bob Melvin unveiled his likely opening day lineup Sunday, and it contained a mild surprise near the top of the batting order. Cliff Pennington hit second in an exhibition against the Yomiuri Giants, with Coco Crisp batting third, Seth Smith cleanup and Yoenis Cespedes fifth. The complete lineup: Weeks 2B Pennington SS Crisp LF Smith DH Cespedes CF Reddick RF Suzuki C Allen 1B Donaldson 3B Melvin had indicated during spring that he liked Crisp batting second behind leadoff man Jemile Weeks, with Pennington batting ninth. But Pennington’s .395 average in spring training convinced him to move the shortstop up. “I think the spring that ‘Penny’ had probably warrants him hitting ‘2’,” Melvin said before the exhibition. “… And it gives us speed with those three guys (at the top).” Though Cespedes batted third or fourth in most of his Cactus League starts, Melvin thinks hitting him fifth will take some pressure off Cespedes, who makes his major league debut in Wednesday’s opener against Seattle. “And it surrounds him with a couple lefties” in Smith and Reddick. “There’s a decent chance this could be the opening day lineup,” Melvin said. So it looks like Brandon Allen has beat out Kila Ka’aihue for the first base job. The one change Melvin said he might make is at third base, where he might insert the left-handed hitting Eric Sogard for Josh Donaldson against Mariners ace Felix Hernandez. Right-handers have hit just .236 off Hernandez over his career, though it’s not like lefties are doing significantly better at .252. With the Mariners throwing lefty Jason Vargas in the second game, Melvin said he could switch things up after the opener. But he indicated that Sunday’s look could be his lineup for the “foreseeable future.” There’s not a lot of power up and down that lineup, but we weren’t expecting the A’s to be a bunch of bashers. They will need their speedy trio atop the lineup to get on base and create scoring opportunities. They’ll need Cespedes to prove he’s a major league run producer, and they could sure use a little pop from Allen at the bottom of the order. A different style of baseball for A's in Japan Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle Introduced by American visitors in the 1870s, baseball is the most popular sport in Japan. The nation has won both World Baseball Classics and has produced several successful major-leaguers, including Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui. The game is played a little differently in Japan, however, as the A's will find today and Monday in exhibition games against the Yomiuri Giants - the Yankees of Japan - and the Hanshin Tigers. "Small ball" and defense are more highly prized, making Ichiro the quintessential example of a Japanese player; teams spend many more hours practicing; managers will sometimes wait until just before the game to announce starting pitchers. A's manager Bob Melvin is now familiar with that last bit of strategy. He said Saturday that he hasn't settled on a lineup for today's game because he still doesn't know whether Yomiuri will throw a right-handed starter or a lefty. Melvin is the only man to have managed both Ichiro and Matsui, the top two Japanese-born position players to have played in the majors. "Matsui is a power guy, and Ichiro is a speed guy, so my guess is these clubs do everything," Melvin said. Japanese baseballs are slightly smaller and harder than major-league baseballs; in the exhibition games, the Yomiuri and Hanshin pitchers will throw Mizuno-made Japanese balls, and the A's pitchers will throw standard Rawlings baseballs. The exhibition games against Japanese teams are eye-openers for American players. The Japanese clubs warm up quite a bit differently - they use two batting cages at once, doubling the action on the field. Fans sing team songs during the game and wave flags, and they are a positive bunch. You won't hear heckling or booing from a Japanese crowd. Beer is sold in the crowd by young women with small kegs strapped to their backs, and sake is available in cans at the stadium, as A's broadcaster Ken Korach found by mistake in 2008 when he pointed at what he thought was orange juice, then discovered it wasn't when he took a big gulp right at airtime. The Tokyo Dome, where the A's will play the exhibition games and then two regular-season games against Seattle on Wednesday and Thursday, has its own quirks. "The bullpen is back here next to the clubhouse," non-roster reliever Evan Scribner said, gesturing toward the stadium's innards and away from the field. "What do we do, sit inside there during the game? And the dugout has two rows of seats.